Mostly About Organized Crime

11/19/2016

Vincenzo De Luca, the governor of the Campania region where the notorious Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia runs riot, has said that Rosy Bindi who heads the Italian parliament's anti-Mafia committee "deserved to be killed" over remarks about his unfitness for office as reported by Reuters. De Luca with his violent rhetoric has proved Bindi's point, and if De Luca had any real honor he'd immediately resign from office.

10/17/2016

The 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia "is selling assault rifles to Islamic State leaders in Libya in return for looted archaeological treasures" according to Italian newspaper La Stampa as reported by The Australian:

La Stampa reports that the Calabrian network, which dominates Europe's drug trade, works with the Camorra in Naples to buy Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers smuggled out of Ukraine and Moldova by the Russian mafia. The armaments are then traded in return for ancient Roman and Greek statues that Isis fighters have dug up illegally in Libya, which was a colony of the two ancient cultures. Isis has ruled over swathes of the country for months.

The Italian Mafia then sells the acquired treasures to Russian and Chinese collectors.

So glad that organized crime has found a way to make a buck out of the world turmoil generated by Islamic terrorism.

09/30/2016

Two paintings stolen fourteen years ago from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam have been recovered by Italian police during a raid against the cocaine-trafficking Amato-Pagano clan from the Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia as reported by The New York Times: "the Italian culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said in a statement on Friday that the investigation 'confirmed how much criminal organizations are interested in works of art, which are used as a form of investment as well as a front of financing.'"

09/22/2016

Town officials who are threatened by Italy's organized crime groups -- Sicily's Cosa Nostra, Calabria's 'Ndrangheta and Campania's Camorra -- have formed support group Avviso Pubblico or Public Warning in order to better cope with their courageous plight as reported by Reuters: "last year Italian mafia groups threatened a public official every 18 hours on average," and "arson attacks, dead animals and bullets through the post were among the methods used to deliver 479 threats to public officials in 2015, a third more than the previous year." These aren't empty threats. The mob has murdered 132 town officials over the last four decades.